Fundamentalism and censorship in South Asia: Mass misapprehension of Nasrin, Murugan & Rushdie

Abstract

Religious Fundamentalism and censorship in South Asia have incapacitated progressive authors like Taslima Nasrin, Salman Rushdie and Perumal Murugan resulting in a restricted dystopia deterring freedom of thought. Mass indoctrination and fundamentalist politics have always played a nefarious role in the misinterpretation and misuse of South Asian literature. Words of prominent authors have been taken out of context and used to rile communalism among ordinary people as political tools. It has been proved repeatedly that the disposition of conservative political ideologies is at odds with secularism and liberal literature. In this paper, I shall be decoding and analyzing the collective essence of three banned books in South Asia (Split: A Life by Taslima Nasrin, The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, and One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan) and the lives of the exiled authors in question through feminist, contrapuntal and post-secular lenses.